


Elsewhere

by DDDragoni



Category: Blaseball (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, LA Unlimited Tacos (Blaseball Team)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-17
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-26 02:15:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30098760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DDDragoni/pseuds/DDDragoni
Summary: A surge of Immateria rushes up from Under! Baserunners are swept from play! McDowell Mason is swept Elsewhere!
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	Elsewhere

McDowell Mason had never been lost before. Ever since he'd been old enough to walk, he'd always had something to guide him home, whether it was the stars, one of the suns, landmarks, or even just his own memory. Even on the rare occasions those failed him, he could fall back on the interdimensional GPS in the cell phone the rest of the team had convinced him to carry. But here, in this strange fog-shrouded forest he'd found himself in after being swept from the blaseball diamond by a surge of Immateria, for the first time in his life, McDowell had no idea where he was.

McDowell had plenty of experience with being alone in a forest, but this was a forest unlike any he'd encountered before. The bark on the surrounding trees was a deep blue, cold to the touch, and gave off a slight hum if he listened very carefully. The needles hanging off their branches were an unnatural purple, and there were no signs of any fruits, cones, or seedpods. There was no birdsong, no howling of wolves, no chattering of squirrels- the only sounds present were the faint humming of the trees and the quiet whisper of a breeze that seemed to change direction every few seconds.

He'd tried climbing one of the trees in order to get above the fog and get a lay of the land, but after getting more than 20 meters off the ground with no sign of the fog or tree ending soon, he decided to head back down instead of pushing his luck. With no better options, he picked a direction at random and started walking. It was almost nostalgic- in his younger days, before he’d decided to give Society a shot, McDowell had spent months, sometimes years alone in the woods, foraging for roots and berries, with only himself and the occasional wildlife for company. This place he’d found himself in wasn’t quite like that, the absolute quiet and overall other-ness put him on edge, but it was enough to bring back memories.

* * *

For the first time since he’d arrived here, McDowell heard the sound of someone other than himself. A familiar voice, complaining loudly. Keeping low and quiet, he crept towards the noise, and after a minute or two, he spotted its source- Nicholas Vincent, the newest member of the Unlimited Tacos, struggling to extract themself from a shrub.

“Nick?”

“GAH!” Nick flailed about wildly, only managing to get themself more tangled in the shrub. “Hang on- is that you, Captain McDowell?”

“Yes.”

“Wow. You’re a lot quieter than I thought for such a big guy. Hey, uh, mind giving me a hand here?”

It took a few minutes, but McDowell was able to extract Nick from the bush with only a few scratches. Nick brushed the last few brambles from their clothes and smiled sheepishly. 

“Same as you, I imagine. On second, ready to run home, and suddenly there a surge of Immateria and off I went!”

McDowell took a moment to size Nick up. They had their jersey on, but also a coat, hiking boots, a pith helmet, and a backpack holding a telescope and several other instruments. “You came here on purpose.”

“What? No! I... can’t get anything past you, can I. Can you blame me though? This is a complete unknown, it’s the perfect research opportunity! And, uh,” they looked down at the ground. “Maybe I was a little worried about you.”

“I can take care of myself.”

“I mean, I know that, it’s just... This is completely new for you, too. You don’t know how this place works, either. Like... how long do you think you’ve been gone?”

“Hard to tell with no sun. A day, maybe?”

Nick shook their head, then looked down at their watch. “Right now, it’s one week, two days, and five hours since you were swept away. About four days since I was.”

McDowell’s brow furrowed. “That can’t be right...”

“It is, though! Something about this place- you don’t get hungry, or thirsty, or tired- without that, your body has no internal measure of time passing. But that’s not the weirdest thing- here, let me show you." Nick pulled a telescope from their bag, and in a matter of minutes had it set up and pointed toward the fog-shrouded sky. "Take a look."

McDowell learned down to the viewfinder and lifted the fur out of his eye so he could peer in, but all he saw through the lens was black. "I don't see anything."

"Exactly! At the very least, you'd expect to see the fog, or maybe some trees, but instead there's just... nothing. All throughout the light spectrum- visible, infrared, UV, X-Ray, Gamma- no readings whatsoever. Look- you can see my hand if I put it in front of the lens, but nothing here registers at all!."

“So.. what does that mean?”

“I have no idea! That’s the exciting part. I wish I’d brought more equipment- I need to come back, set up some emitters, see if it’s the fog interfering or something more inherent. Maybe this place has a completely misaligned frequency, which would-”

McDowell cut them off. “Science later. Right now we need to find a way home.”

“Right, right, of course. Got a little carried away there.” Nick started poaching up their telescope. “So... how do we do that, exactly?”

“Keep moving. If there’s something to find, we’ll find it eventually.”

“Doesn’t seem like the most reliable plan, but I guess I don’t have any other ideas. Lead the way, Captain.”

* * *

They’d been walking for quite a while, making (mostly one-sided) small talk, when McDowell stopped in his tracks, his head cocked to the side. Nick looked up at him quizzically. "What's happening? Why'd you stop?"

"Something's coming."

"Something? What do you mean, something? Is it another person, or MMPH!"

Before they could finish their sentence, McDowell wrapped a paw around their mouth and hauled them behind the nearest tree. Nick struggled instinctively for a moment, but stopped when they felt the ground shaking intermittently beneath their feet and heard the heavy thuds of massive footsteps- distant, but getting closer. McDowell pressed his back against the tree and whispered to Nick.

"Still. Quiet. Don't even breathe."

Nick nodded, his eyes wide, and McDowell released his mouth. The two of them held their breath as the stomping footsteps came closer, the force of the impacts shaking a few needles from nearby trees. As the sound got even closer, they began to hear deep, heavy breaths along with them, and a rank, rotten smell washed over them. The shaking became more and more intense, and the stomps got louder and louder, and Nick squeezed their eyes shut, expecting at any moment that something would smash the tree down and tear into their flesh- but then the stomping began to fade, the smell began to lessen, and the... the whatever it was passed by the tree and continued onward. McDowell waited until silence had returned to the forest before he stepped out from the tree.

Nick slumped over, let out the breath they’d been holding in, and wiped the sweat from their forehead. “What... was that?” McDowell didn’t answer, staring silently in the direction it had gone. “Could that have been Professor Richardson? He got...” Nick waggled their hand in a poor attempt to imitate a flood. “A couple days before I did.”

“Doubtful. That smell was... wrong. It’s...” He trailed off, staring into the distance.

“Uh, Captain? You okay?” Nick reached out a hand, but instead of the strong shoulder they expected, their hand only touched mist. “Captain!?” They waved their hand through his arm a few times. “Captain! M—-w-ll!” Their tongue caught in their mouth, the name refusing to be spoken aloud. “M—-w-ll? M—-w-ll M-s-n!” Nick ran around in front of M---w-ll, waving a hand in front of his vacant face. “Captain! What’s happening?”

M---w-ll slowly turned his face toward Nick, his body wavering slightly in the breeze. The sight of his teammate seemed to spark something in him, and he blinked a few times. “N-Nick?” He raised a paw to his forehead as he resolidified. “What happened?”

“I don’t know! You just went... hazy all of a sudden. But while we’re asking questions...” Nick pulled a notepad from their bag and grabbed the pencil from behind their ear. “What did it feel like? Could you still think straight?”

McDowell waved them off. “Later. Let’s get out of here first.”

* * *

Their trek continued, long enough for Nick’s watch to run its battery dry. With no way of keeping time, the pair fell into a silent rhythm, step after step for what may have been hours, may have been days, may have been weeks- until Nick noticed something moving nearby. Whatever it was, it was giving off massive amounts of light, too bright to look directly at, although it was at a good enough distance that it didn’t seem to notice them. 

“Hey, Captain, should we hide again, or-” Nick looked over at M—-w-ll, only to see that he’d once again slipped into that scattered state, vacantly staring forward as he trudged onward, step after step. Nick glanced back towards the light, which seemed to be moving closer, then stepped in in front of M—-w-ll and started snapping their fingers in front of his face. “Now’s really not a good time, we need to do something about this!”

The snapping did the trick, and McDowell shook his head and was able to reconstitute himself- but just a moment too late. A hideous shriek pierced the foggy air, and the light started to accelerate, moving with clear purpose directly towards them. McDowell looked around, getting his bearings and taking stock of the situation, then looked down at Nick and said “Run.”

The two of them took off at a dead sprint, away from the light as fast as their legs could carry them. Nick stumbled over a stray root, but McDowell was able to grab his flailing arm and yank him forward, even as the light slowly gained ground. Over the pounding of feet and continual shrill shrieks, McDowell began to pick up a new sound in the direction they were heading- rushing water. The trees began to thin, and for the first time since their arrival, McDowell and Nick emerged from the forest, out onto a sheer cliff, overlooking a rushing flood of Immateria. McDowell glanced back at the pursuing light and hollered “Jump!”

Without hesitation, they leapt from the cliff, tumbling end over end toward the torrent beneath them. Nick felt their mouth and nose fill with the substance as they fought to get back to the surface, reaching out for that precious air, every second more and more sure they’d never make it, until

Nicholas Vincent was sitting in the Unlimited Tacos locker room, lacing up their cleats. They stood up for a quick pre-game stretch before they abruptly realized what they were doing and where they were. They ran their hands over their body, making sure everything was still there, before letting out a whoop of joy. “We made it! Captain, we’re back! ...Captain McDowell?” But they were the only one in the locker room, and a quick glance at the roster on the wall confirmed their fear- they’d made it back, but McDowell was still Elsewhere. Before they could get too worried about it, though, the sound of a cheering crowd caught their attention- there was a Blaseball game in progress, which meant they were needed on the diamond.

Nick grabbed their bat and headed for the door, but stopped briefly and looked back at McDowell’s locker. “I believe in you, Captain. If I made it back, I know you can too.” With a quick nod, they steadied their resolve, and headed out to rejoin the team.


End file.
